In the 2^nd Century there arose a cult called Montanism.  It was started by a “Prophet” called Montanus.  Early church historians tell us that Montanus, prior to becoming a Christian, was a Temple Priest of the Mother Goddess of Fertility who was called Cybele.   In the worship of Cybele, the followers would dance wildly to the point of convulsing.  Also, there would be very loud music and the followers would often fall into a “trance” like state. 

Even more bizarre, was that during the course of the wild, ecstatic type worship,  some of the male followers would publicly and ritualistically castrate themselves.  Then, subsequent to their castration, these same men would take on “female” identities and begin wearing women’s clothing.  So, it was out of this spiritual environment that Montanus evolved.

Upon becoming a Christian, Montanus began to prophesy.  When prophesying, it is recorded that Montanus would fall into a trance like state while speaking forth his prophecies.  This was called ecstatic prophecy by the early church historians.  Also, there was loud music and ecstatic type worship associated with these meetings. 

A very interesting part of the history of this movement involved two women named Prisca (or Priscilla) and Maximilla.  These two women are said to have left their husbands in order to “go and prophesy with Montanus”.  Later, it is recorded that Prisca claimed that Jesus would come to her at night and sleep by her side, but He would be in the form of a woman.  And, we thought there were problems with the book “The Shack”!

Theologically, Montanists claimed to have a “fuller revelation” than that which was already given in scripture.  Montanists also believed that their prophecies superseded the doctrines of the Apostles. 

Eusebius, a historian of the early church, is said to have written when describing Montanus, that Montanus would “fall into a frenzy and convulsions” while supposedly prophesying.  This led some to believe that Montanus was actually possessed by a demonic spirit. 

When looking at the brief history of Montanism as described above, it sounds all too familiar doesn’t it?  I mean, if you consider the recent developments in the Body of Christ over the last couple of years, it seems that upon reading the history of  Montanism, you could be reading a description of our modern day followers of the “New Ecstatic Worship” and the “New Ecstatic Prophesy”.   

When watching the many You Tube clips of our modern ecstatic prophets and the modern ecstatic worship, one cannot help but draw the close comparison to what one reads about when researching Montanism.  I believe, seeing how it is so very close in comparison, that we are witnessing a revival of the ancient spirit of Montanism within the Body of Christ today.  And, this is very serious for the church. 

Some credit ancient Montanism with creating a strong backlash within the 2^nd Century church against the operation of the gifts of the spirit.  In some churches the operation of the gifts all but disappeared.  Such a reaction is the last thing the church needs today. 

I find the vulgarity exhibited by some of our modern day ecstatic prophets to be particularly damaging to the church.  Especially, this new thing going on where certain Pastors are comparing the anointing of the Holy Spirit to getting high on street drugs as these same Pastors “act out” as if they are smoking marijuana and injecting heroin as they are supposedly getting “high” on the Holy Spirit.  They are coining it “Tokin On the Ghost”.  If you don’t believe this, then simply go to You Tube and type in “ecstatic prophesy”.  See for yourself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDOQyikIUdA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itAUIaMM5zQ .

All of this is simply an abomination.  The Bible says that God stands in battle array against the proud.  I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that people should have a reverent fear of God while He is sitting on His throne in Heaven above, let alone if He becomes angry and decides to take an offensive and militaristic posture against someone.  I believe these ecstatic folks are testing God and they are getting ready to see “fire and smoke” for sure, but it is not going to be coming from a “drug pipe”.  Wait and see.  God will not be mocked.

Another significant issue we see concerning the ecstatics is that there seems to be an emasculation of males in this movement.  The men are not men.  They act like immature boys.  They are grossly underdeveloped spiritually and they are effeminate.  This leads me to believe that, in fact, the ancient Jezebellic spirits are at work today.  You see, Jezebel and her false prophets hated the true prophets of God.  And, we see in the Bible, that Jezebel sought to do what?  Jezebel sought to kill the true prophets of God. 

The same demonic spirits are at work today.  They cause the modern day ecstatics to work themselves up into trances and frenzies just like the false prophets of Baal on Mt Carmel.   And, just as some of the male followers of Cybele would publicly and ritualistically castrate themselves back then, I believe today we are seeing these same demonic influences as they attempt to “spiritually castrate” the male leadership of the present day church.

There is no escaping this comparison.  What we are witnessing today is so close to what we read about in church history.  I want to warn the Pastors of churches today.  You ignore all of this to your peril and the peril of your church.  Do not underestimate to size and scope of this movement.  It is large, and it is organized.  There are several different organizations throughout the country that are involved in this, with each group having its own area or facet of emphasis, but ultimately, they are being motivated by, and influenced by the same demonic influence. 

Again Pastors, you cannot simply look the other way and ignore this.  I urge you to educate yourself to what is transpiring within the Body of Christ.  Do this so you can be prepared to give a defense of the true gospel when the time comes.  May the Lord empower His true servants and prepare them for the days ahead.  Amen.

read comments (1)

This post will be one of the more comprehensive articles I have written for the website, so, it will be quite lengthy. It deals with an issue that I believe is extremely important to the church today. I will lay out in detail what I see happening in the area of prophecy and the church.

We read in Isaiah 5:13 “Therefore My people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge, their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst”. I believe this describes many within the Body of Christ today. And, one of the reasons I believe the Body of Christ finds itself in this state is due to a powerful and pervasive false prophetic system that can be found within the church today.

The above scripture helps us to see the importance of having a sound theological system. For we see clearly, that if we, as Christians, find ourselves misinformed or uninformed, then we can experience great loss or setback in the spiritual realm. The phrase in this verse which says “their honorable men are famished” means that “their glory is diminished”. So, we could say that if the Body of Christ (or camps within the Body of Christ) adopt bad doctrine or find themselves operating from a faulty belief system, then that group will have “diminished glory”. And, frankly, that is what we see in the Body of Christ today.

In my last article I made mention of a false prophetic system. To lay a framework for this concept I want to use a phrase from psychology which is termed “delusional system”. In a psychological or psychiatric exam you will sometimes see the phrase “he has a well developed delusional system”. This is very serious and is often seen in people with schizophrenia. It is more than an occasional hallucination. Hallucinations can occur for a variety of reasons such as lack of sleep, fatigue, type of medication you took, fear, etc. Or, hallucinations can be a symptom of something far more serious called a delusional system.

A person with a well developed delusional system will often be very verbose and can even, at times, sound convincing to the untrained ear. An example of a delusional system is as follows: “I know things about the terrorist attacks on 9/11 that other people don’t know. I know certain secrets about the plans of the government and there are other people involved and I know who they are. The CIA is after me because of what I know. I was invited to a party of a friend when I was in London a couple years ago. At this party I was tricked by a woman who took me to a room where there were CIA agents who put an antenna in my brain so they could read my thoughts. There were also other foreign spies who were there and they are working with the CIA but, people don’t realize this. Then, there was a gun battle between the agents over me and what I know. I was seriously wounded but I survived. I would show you my scars but, they may be looking. They are trying to read my thoughts and get the information I know. Sometimes, they can even read the thoughts of the people I am talking to. They want to kill me because of what I know. But, they won’t kill me because they don’t want the foreign agents to know that I have these secrets.” And, on and on and on it can go.

You may be saying this all sounds very crazy. Well, yes, it is exactly that. That is why it is called a delusional system. The person who has such a problem, as described above, will actually live their life and go about their daily activities based on what they are perceiving from/about their delusional system on that particular day. This person can go years living their life in the context of the delusion. In essence, this person is captive to the delusional system. Or, you could say that this person is in a prison of delusion. They cannot get out. They are held captive in captivity.

I remember years ago, while working as a student intern in city government for a medium-sized town in the Eastern U.S., a fellow who was around 60 years old walked into the office where I was having a meeting with an assistant to the city planner. This fellow was calm, articulate and seemed OK at first, until he started talking. Then, in short order, he was matter-of-factly going on with a very similar story like I described above, except his story (delusion) included Marilyn Monroe. I also recall, from my previous secular occupation in which my responsibilities included reading many psychological exams, that there were those who had similar types of delusional systems. Read the rest of this entry »

read comments (0)

There is a story in I Kings chapter 22 about two Kings of old who had a discussion between themselves concerning the prospect of going to war against an enemy. There was Ahab, the King of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah. They consulted between themselves about combining forces to fight the Syrians. In the process of this meeting the prophets of Israel were summoned to give a word from the Lord about whether or not they should go into battle.

The story tells us that there were around 400 prophets gathered together. They all said “go up and fight” and they assured the Kings of victory should they pursue this campaign. Then, King Jehoshaphat makes a very striking statement and says “Is there not still a prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of him?”

Upon reading this, one might think “but wait a minute Jehoshaphat, there are 400 prophets here and they are all saying the same thing. And, now you are suggesting that all 400 of them might not be giving a true prophecy”. That is exactly what King Jehoshaphat was saying. In street vernacular, Jehoshaphat was saying “I don’t believe a word of any of these prophets. Go find me someone that I can trust is truly speaking a word from God.”

Then, in a theatrical way, one of the false prophets whose name was Zedekiah made a set of iron horns for himself. It is indicated that he “put them on” and began to act as a goring bull, full of force and rage, and in the process of acting this out, he states “With these you shall gore the Syrians until they are destroyed”.

But, King Jehoshaphat still wasn’t impressed. Finally, and reluctantly, King Ahab brings forth the prophet named Micaiah. In short order, Micaiah speaks the true word of the Lord and tells of a meeting in Heaven before the throne of God. At this meeting, God is looking for someone to deceive King Ahab in order to execute judgment against him. Lo and behold, the Lord God recruits a demonic spirit to deceive King Ahab. This demonic spirit is commissioned by God to go forth and be a “lying spirit” in the mouths of all the prophets of King Ahab. Notice the word all. All means all, not part of. So, if you are a student of the Bible, you know how this story plays out. Bad things happen to King Ahab. I encourage you to read this for yourself. It is a very, very good lesson in understanding how the spiritual realm operates.

Read the rest of this entry »

read comments (0)